[German Version] (before 1410 – Apr 17 [?], 1478), co-founder of the Solovetsky Monastery and an outstanding example of the attraction of the ascetic life in his period; canonized in 1547. He is not to be confused with the similarly named (a) metropolitan (1490–1494), (b) author of a pilgrimage account (1423), or (c) character in F. Dostoyevsky’s novel
The Brothers Karamazov. Michael Hübner Bibliography On Zossima: K. Appel, “Zosima,”
BBKL XIV, 1998, 588f. (bibl.) On the metropolitan: P. Nitsche,
LMA IX, 1998, 676f. On the pilgrim: F.B. Poljakov,
ibid., 677 On the fictional character…

[German Version] (CIS), a union founded in 1991 of the successor states of the former USSR: Azerbaijan (not 1992–93), Armenia, Georgia (from 1993), Kazakhstan, Kirgistan, Moldavia (beginning 1994), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Belarus (White Russia). A 1995 human rights convention adopted by only some of the states formulated freedom of religion (art. 10) in line with the OSCE, though with a limitation wi…

[German Version] (Jan 13, 1854, Ostaškov – Apr 18, 1900, St. Petersburg), Russian church historian who began studying at the Spiritual Academy of St. Petersburg in 1875. Because of his outstanding accomplishments he was appointed even before the end of his studies to the chair of early church history, becoming lecturer in 1879 and professor in 1885. In his “theses” on the
Filioque Bolotov attempted to interpret the latter not as a dogma but as a Western theologoumenon and thus to strip it of its chur…

[German Version]
I. Terminology All the major concepts in soteriology have biblical roots. Of central importance today is the notion of reconciliation (II), which bridges the theological and secular realms. The original Greek word καταλλαγή/
katallagḗ involves the notion of
exchange, which was early taken to imply that Christ takes the place of the sinner before God, so realizing
atonement (at-one-ment) and making expiation. Associated ideas include substitution and
representation, which conceive Christ as standing in for the sinner before God. Particular theolo…

[German Version] The basis of the Orthodox blessing of water is the blessing of the water used in baptism (IV, 2), attested since the Early Church. In connection with the commemoration of Christ’s baptism on Jan 6, observed since the 5th century, there developed the separate rite of the Great Blessing of the Waters, in a double ceremony. After the liturgy on the eve of the festival, a blessing is recited over a vessel of water, which will supply holy water throughout the coming year. On the feast …